iPad pitches Apple onto world PC top table
Vendor Number Five
Fellow market watchers may not include the iPad in Apple's computer sales figures, but Canalys does, and it reckons doing so puts the Mac maker into world's top five.
Looking back at Q2, the three million or more tablets Apple shipped during the quarter amounted to six per cent of the portable computer segment, Canalys said.
According to Apple - which is, in any case, the source of analysts' numbers - it shipped a fraction under 3.5 million Macs in Q2. Add the iPad to that total and you get 6.7m computing devices.
That's enough to catapult the company past Toshiba, Asus and others in the world PC vendor league table, as maintained by market watcher Gartner. That puts Apple in fifth place with a market share of just over eight per cent.
Sure, it's still behind HP (17.4 per cent), Acer (13 per cent), Dell (12.4 per cent) and Lenovo (ten per cent), but it's within grasping distance of the tail-enders.
All the evidence suggests that iPads aren't simply being used as large iPod Touches, though that's clearly part of their appeal. Rather a lot of folk are using iPads for the same jobs they might have previously put netbooks too.
We'd argue analysts shouldn't ignore the iPad - as Gartner, for one, does - as a device that's somehow not a true computing device.
What do you think? ®
COMMENTS
But but but...
...It's not a real computer
Or so say the geeks that rule the tech forums.
Personally I would say that it's so obviously a computer that only the most blinkered Apple-hater could disagree. Guess that means this comment will be getting about 50 thumbs downs any second now...
Of course the iPad is a personal computer ...
In fact it is more personal than most due to its tactile, light and engaging form factor. However it is obviously not in the same league as dual or quad core 15+ inch laptops and my arms are quite thankful at that !!
It does however beat a netbook (or laptop) on many of the mobile functions that "normal human beings" would use a netbook for .. i.e. email, farcebook, twonter, gootube, non-flash (but quite flashy) games, skype (will be excellent under iOS 4 when that comes out as it now works correctly as a background app).
I would say that for most of the general public that currently buy computers, unless they need full video/photoshop editing of their digital camera output, then 95% of what they would do could be dealt with by an iPad ... currently the ONLY downside is that to perform iOS upgrades or upload your own ripped CDs you need a computer to connect to! When the new Apple data centre comes online then I can see an "iTunes in the cloud" overcoming those issues.
Of course 95% of Reg readers don't need an iPad and aren't the target audience .. so the fact you can also do all this with X, Y or Z .. is moot.
Really?
You claim that the TM2 is better for gaming. The iPad has 200 free, modern games designed just for it in HD mode. Not to mention the thousands that are iPhone games that can be played as well. You don't have to spend $20-30 for a controller, because the iPad is the controller, with an accelerometer.
The iPad can easily import photos using the camera connection kit. It costs $29, about the same amount as your game controller you need to purchase for your computer. Oh, and with the iPad, you won't need to go back to your hotel on a 4 hour outdoor shoot because the battery is still good for another 6 hours.
Movies, Really? The iPad can download movies and TV shows from iTunes and Netflix. Even with 3g service. Oh and when you turn the screen on the iPad to watch a movie, it rotates automatically, does your HP do that? Or do you have to push a button to do that.
Now, the iPad has a 1gz processor and starts at $500. The HP? 1.2Gz and starts at $829. You have instant access to your information on the ipad, no need to wait for the operating system to load and then another 5 -15 seconds for the "touch interface" to load on the HP, as mentioned in the engadget review.
Yes, the iPad is a great, great consumption device. Just ask the 3.2 million folks that already own one.
Interesting that my experience is different
I am a touch typist and I find I can rattle off paragraphs at an impressive rate. I have the Apple cover that doubles as a nice lap angler thingy so that it is very comfortable to type quite fast.
Different strokes and all that. Just thought I would chip in.
Since buying the iPad I have not once opened my laptop (in the house). I think that goes to show the type of use the iPad was aimed at. It's a coffee table reach for thingamy.
I knew I would get one (I am toy addicted) but I was genuinly suprised to see the level of sales achieved. All good though IMO.
Plenty of Reg Haters would disagree though I'm sure.
HP
So the ipad doesn't do *EXACTLY* what you want it to do, so it's not as good as the HP device.
Well duh! No shit sherlock.
For a lot of people maybe the ipad does do what they want - or at least enough of what they want for it to be useful.
I don't get it how once device must be able to do everything - for everyone - or it just isn't good really a PC/phone/whatever.
